Too small for an employee handbook?

One of the first questions we ask a new small business owner client is: Do you have an employee handbook?  More often than not, they say “NO” and on the rare occasion that they do have one, it was written years ago, has never been updated and sits in some storage room nearly forgotten.

It’s remarkable the number of small businesses that have no handbook at all!  There are many good reasons to create an employee handbook, and in fact, small businesses can do themselves great financial harm without one.

Courts, the Department of Labor, and the EEOC will automatically assume, if you have no employee handbook, that you have not informed your employees of the up to date information that you are legally bound to tell employees in writing, such as their right to vote, their earnings breakdown, their right to pregnancy leave and so forth. The list of what businesses must legally tell employees grows longer every year.  Not having an employee handbook may lead these agencies to dig more deeply into your business practices to determine your compliance with wall postings, payroll accounts and such, which could then lead to severe penalties if you are not in compliance and up to date.

Having an employee handbook, and updating it annually, can protect an employer from liability if an employee decides to sue.  The employee handbook is a document where important policies and procedures are outlined in detail and explained to the workforce.

Here are some guidelines as to what must be included in the company employee handbook:

• Workplace rules (e.g., work schedules, length of breaks, days off, etc.).
• Strong language that supports an “off clock” break policy and enforcement of such;
• Description of the culture of your organization;
• Employment at Will language written appropriately with the inclusion that the business owner has the only right to choose an employment agreement;
• Anti-discrimination policies;
• Sexual harassment policies;
• Leave policies;
• Open door policies;
• Anti-retaliation policies;
• Termination procedures;
• Insurance and COBRA information;
• Pregnancy and Postpartum policies;
• Exempt vs. Non-Exempt language;
• Clocking in to work policies;
• No working off clock policy;
• Overtime policies;
• FTO/Vacation policies;
• Right to Vote policy;
• Non-discriminatory dress code policies;
• Non-discriminatory smoking policies;
• Disclaimer regarding technology ownership;
• Technology Use policies;
• Employee Fiduciary Duty to Employer language;
• Employee Duty of Loyalty to Employer language.

All employees should be given time to review the employee manual and then be required to sign and date a letter of agreement or acknowledgement page that clearly states they’ve read the handbook and understand its contents.

Employee handbooks should be updated annually. The new employee handbook should then be , re-distributed and A new letter of agreement or acknowledgement page should be signed by all employees and saved in each employee’s file. [Read more…]